THE ARoS 2017 PROGRAMME

Show, don’t tell!

2017 is the year when ARoS goes wholeheartedly beyond the framework set by the museum. The programme presents Nordic art, a unique collaborative venture with Tate London, and the first triennial, THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times, with works by top international names and young talents.

- In 2017, ARoS directs its focus specifically on the contributions we can make to the artistic ecosystem and the way we think about and perceive society both in Denmark and abroad. Art is an indispensable part of society, but unfortunately it’s subject to constant political pressure and hence vulnerable to financial cuts. ARoS wants to grant art the place and respect that it deserves and this we plan to do, among much else, by launching the ARoS triennial, which will be our highlight in 2017, says Erlend G. Høyersten, museum director, ARoS.

EXHIBITIONS IN 2017

THE GARDEN – END OF TIMES; BEGINNING OF TIMES: from April 2017

In 2017, ARoS presents the first triennial entitled THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times. The exhibition will extend over two entire galleries at the museum as well as carefully selected locations in the urban landscape, and a coastal stretch along the bay bordered by woodland just south of the city. This will create an art zone spanning more than four kilometres.

The triennial will include works by a number of prominent international visual artists as well as young emerging talents – including new commissions by artists such as Fujiko Nakaya, Simon Starling, Cyprien Gaillard, Doug Aitken, Alicja Kwade, and Superflex.

The triennial is made up of three parts: The Past (ARoS), examining the landscape and man’s relationship with nature seen from an artistic and ideological perspective, The Present (various urban sites) looking at nature in a modern urban context, and finally The Future (coastal site), exploring the artistic reaction to environmental changes.

THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times is supported by Aarhus 2017.

Dates:

The Past (ARoS) 8 April until 10 September 2017

The Present (various urban sites) 3 June until 30 July 2017

The Future (coastal site) 3 June until 30 July 2017

HUMAN NATURE, EXHIBITION FROM THE COLLECTION ON LEVEL 8: from February 2017

There are certain elements that people, at all times, have had to respond to in life: nature, religion, philosophy, and science. ARoS has decided to use these themes as common threads in a new presentation of works from the collection opening in February. The purpose of the exhibition is to present the history of art as well as to allowing art to convey food for thought and a chance to reflect on life. A number of the familiar main works in our collection will, of course, be included in this new hanging.

BACON, FREUD, AND THE LONDON PAINTERS: October 2017 – February 2018

ARoS and Tate, London will begin a collaborative venture to stage an exhibition showing works by a number of seminal artists often referred to as partaking to the School of London. Among them are some of the most visionary and uncompromising painters from the post-war period, including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, R.B. Kitaj and Paula Rego.

In the decades following World War II, this group of artists engaged with subjects that felt immediate and intensely personal, focusing on their friends and lovers as well as their immediate surroundings. Works from the immediate post-war period are defined by the angst and existentialism that spread across Europe following the death, destruction and bombing of the war. Humanity was portrayed as frail, desperate and bare. However, the work of these artists developed considerably over sustained careers that spanned numerous decades and – in the case of Auerbach, Kossoff and Rego – continue into the present day. This exhibition retraces these artistic developments including paintings and drawings spanning seven decades. Despite the sheer diversity of approaches and techniques, they share a constantly renewed appraisal of the artists’ personal position in the world, focusing on individuals, locations and narratives close and dear to them.

The exhibition is organised by Tate, London in collaboration with ARoS.

COOL, CALM, AND COLLECTED: November 2017 until April 2018

Cool, Calm and Collected is an exhibition featuring Danish contemporary artists who, despite different approaches in terms of material and content share the common feature of addressing an aesthetically compelling, poetic, or cool mode of expression. At the same time, the exhibition attempts to show the very different approaches adopted by the artists when it comes to choice of materials, media, and themes. For although a general aesthetic trend seems to be predominant in Danish art, a number of the works contain aspects of a subversive, conceptual, or politico-critical nature, seething right beneath their neatly composed exteriors. In continuation of this, various themes and references are put into play – from the occult, posthumanism, socio-criticism, and science to psychology, with inspiration drawn from other parts of the world, especially the East, and from earlier styles such as minimalism, surrealism, and conceptual art, but also from a long tradition of Danish architecture and design.

ARoS FOCUS // NEW NORDIC:

In 2017, ARoS will embark on the third and hence final year of the exhibition series ARoS FOCUS // NEW NORDIC focusing on young Nordic artists.

Jacob Kirkegaard: February 2017 until May 2107

The Danish artist Jacob Kirkegaard (b.1975) enjoys international recognition for his fascinating recordings of all manner of sounds. Using advanced equipment, Kirkegaard makes submarine sound recordings, records the resonance of abandoned rooms and pitches deep inside the human ear. Kirkegaard’s works are created in response to the fact that everything contains sound. Through a combination of scientific examinations and artistic stagings, he demonstrates how sound is often given a low priority in the modern visual world. The exhibition Jacob Kirkegaard – all & nothing presents five of Kirkegaard’s striking sound installations of which the work Black Metal Square # 1 – 3 is a new production, created specifically for the presentation of Kirkegaard at ARoS.

Toril Johannessen: June 2017 until September 2017

The Norwegian artist Toril Johannessen (b.1978) works within a broad spectrum of artistic media. Her cross-media work process finds expression in the ambiguity evident in her installations consisting of photos, sculptural elements, drawings, and text. The works are often based on an extensive examination starting with factual details viewed from a subjective perspective. In this way, her works become a virtual personal archaeological investigation of the world. Toril Johannessen’s works have been exhibited in a wide range of international art contexts and, in recent years, she has taken part in the Istanbul Biennale and Documenta.

Dodda Maggý: September 2017 until January 2018

The Icelandic artist and composer Dodda Maggý (b.1981) works with an emotional imagery. Video and music coalesce with performative elements in psychedelic and lyrical images when she depicts mental conditions as perceptual experience and altered consciousness. Through video and sound installations, she depicts what could be our innermost dreams, recollections, and fantasies.